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PODCAST

Air Quality Matters

Air Quality Matters inside our buildings and out.This Podcast is about Indoor Air Quality, Outdoor Air Quality, Ventilation, and Health in our homes, workplaces, and education settings.And we already have many of the tools we need to make a difference.The conversations we have and how we share this knowledge is the key to our success.We speak with the leaders at the heart of this sector about them and their work, innovation and where this is all going.Air quality is the single most significant

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All Episodes

108:35

Free Radicals, Diesel Particles, and the War Zone in...

Air Quality Matters ·

2026/03/23

This week, we sit down with Frank Kelly, Professor at Imperial College London and Director of the Environmental Research Group, to examine a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about air pollution: What if the real danger isn't just how much dust we're breathing, but what that dust is made of and what it does to our bodies at a cellular level?For over three decades, Frank Kelly has been one of the architects of London's modern understanding of air quality. His pioneering work on

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10:28

The Human Nose vs. The Lab: Testing Air Cleaners That...

Air Quality Matters ·

2026/03/19

This week, we dive into a question that challenges one of the most common assumptions in building energy efficiency: What if the chemical tests we use to validate air cleaning technology are completely missing the point—and what if the human nose is actually the most reliable instrument we have?The paper is titled A Method for Testing the Gas Phase Air Cleaners Using Sensory Assessment of Air Quality, published in the Journal of Building and Environment. It's authored by Cantor Amada, Lee Fang,

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66:46

Sheep's Wool, Formaldehyde, and the Chemical...

Air Quality Matters ·

2026/03/16

This week, we sit down with Mark Lynn, Managing Director of Eden Renewable Innovations and Chair of the Alliance for Sustainable Building Products, to explore a question that cuts to the heart of indoor air quality: What if the materials we bring into our buildings are the forgotten foundation of healthy indoor air—and what if natural materials offer solutions we've systematically overlooked for decades? Recorded live at the Alliance for Sustainable Building Products Annual Healthy Buildings

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10:58

Stuffy Rooms, One-Star Reviews: The Commercial...

Air Quality Matters ·

2026/03/12

This week, we step outside the usual world of homes, schools, and offices to ask a question that might reshape how we think about the hospitality industry: What if the physical performance of a hotel room matters just as much as the quality of service—and what if guests are already telling us this in their online reviews?The paper is titled The Impact of Indoor Environmental Quality on Tourist Accommodation Ratings Using Guest Reviews, published in the Journal of Building and Environment. It's

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106:13

The Edifice Complex: Why Your Building Probably...

Air Quality Matters ·

2026/03/09

This week, we sit down with Adam Muggleton, Chief Technical Officer at AESG and host of the Edifice Complex Podcast. Adam's career spans project management, property development, and commissioning across 21 countries—from the UK to the Middle East and North America. He views buildings not as architectural statements, but as complex machines that are likely underperforming. With decades of experience and zero patience for performative sustainability, he has developed a reputation for dismantling

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9:51

Garbage In, Garbage Out: Why Your Air Quality Models...

Air Quality Matters ·

2026/03/05

This week, we tackle a question that goes to the heart of the performance gap in buildings: What if the problem isn't just poor construction or shoddy installation—but the data we're feeding into our models in the first place?There's an old saying in computer science: garbage in, garbage out. If you feed a perfect model with bad assumptions, you get a perfect calculation of a fantasy. And that's exactly what's been happening in indoor air quality modeling for decades. We've been relying on

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105:16

Beyond HVAC: Why Dehumidification Deserves the D -...

Air Quality Matters ·

2026/03/02

This week, we step into the world of moisture in buildings—one of the most overlooked yet critical aspects of indoor air quality and building performance. While we talk about humidity constantly, we rarely stop to break down what we actually mean. What is moisture? Is it a pollutant? And why does it matter so much? We sit down with David Schurk, owner of HVAC Insight Consultants and a dehumidification specialist with over 40 years of experience in the HVAC industry. David has led system design,

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12:15

From Fear to Action: Why Culture Shapes Air Quality...

Air Quality Matters ·

2026/02/19

This week, we dive into a question that goes beyond sensors and science: What actually motivates people to invest in clean air for their homes—and does culture change everything?The paper is titled Indoor Air Quality: Predicting and Comparing Protective Behaviours in Germany and Portugal, published in Indoor Air, and it's based on survey data from 800 participants split evenly between the two nations. This research uses Protection Motivation Theory to unpack the psychological and cultural drivers

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102:56

From Dust to Disease: The Hidden Respiratory Risks in...

Air Quality Matters ·

2026/02/16

This week, we step into one of the most overlooked yet critical areas of air quality and health: the construction site. While we spend so much time talking about indoor air quality during the operational phase of buildings, there's an entire workforce—construction and demolition workers—who spend their careers in environments that are anything but operational. And the risks they face are profound. We sit down with Angie Brooker, Occupational Health Manager at Multiplex, to explore the layered,

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11:02

Mold, Confidence, and Change: What Actually Drives...

Air Quality Matters ·

2026/02/13

This week, we dive into a powerful piece of research that moves beyond surveys and snapshots to ask: What actually motivates people in deprived urban communities to change their indoor air quality behaviours—and how long does it take?The paper is titled Psychological and Contextual Drivers of Indoor Air Quality Behaviours in a Deprived Urban Community: Evidence from Participatory Research, published in Building and Environment, and it's based on the Well Home Project—an 18-month longitudinal study

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32:22

Platinum Plaques and Broken Fans: The Gap Between Air...

Air Quality Matters ·

2026/02/09

Welcome back to a solo episode—it's just me this week, fresh off a plane from Las Vegas and the AHR Expo, and honestly, in a bit of a reflective mood. When you spend a week inside the ultimate sealed box that is Vegas—losing track of time, weather, and what the air is actually doing—it puts things in perspective. It's comfort manufactured at massive scale, designed to keep you sedated, happy, and spending money. And stepping back into the real world, looking at the sheer volume of noise landing on

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11:09

Trust the Messenger: Why Air Quality Data Fails...

Air Quality Matters ·

2026/02/05

This week, we tackle a question that goes beyond sensors, standards, and science: Do you trust the people telling you the air is bad? And more importantly—does that trust, or lack of it, actually change what you do about it?The paper is titled Communicating Particulate Matter Risk: The Effects of Empoweredness and Trust in Government Information and Protective Behaviour, published in the International Journal of Urban Sciences, and based on research conducted in Seoul, South Korea. The Central

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94:56

The Silent Epidemic: COPD and the 3.5 Million Deaths...

Air Quality Matters ·

2026/02/02

We sit down with Dr. José Luis Castro, Director General Special Envoy for Chronic Respiratory Diseases at the WHO, to confront one of the most overlooked yet devastating health crises of our time: chronic respiratory diseases—specifically asthma and COPD.With over three decades of experience in global health leadership, he has dedicated his career to advancing sustainable health initiatives across developing countries and urban centres worldwide. The Central Question When a child can't breathe,

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12:16

Making the Invisible Visible: How Real-Time Air...

Air Quality Matters ·

2026/01/28

Welcome back to Air Quality Matters and One Take, where we unpack the latest research shaping our understanding of indoor air and the built environment.This week, we're diving into a paper that asks a deceptively simple question: If people could actually see the air they breathe, would they change their behavior? And perhaps more importantly for policymakers—is it worth the money to help them do it? The paper is titled Making the Invisible Visible: The Impact of Revealing Indoor Air Pollution on

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117:48

Disclosure to Performance: Indoor Air Quality in Real...

Air Quality Matters ·

2026/01/26

In this essential episode, we sit down with Parag Cameron Rastogi, Director of Real Asset Analytics at GRESB, to explore one of the most powerful yet often misunderstood forces shaping the future of indoor air quality: how we measure, benchmark, and value the performance of buildings at scale. GRESB—the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark—has trillions of dollars of assets in its system. It is the machinery behind how pension funds, investors, and asset managers assess risk, performance,

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10:50

The Psychology of Air Quality - Why Technical...

Air Quality Matters ·

2026/01/22

Welcome back to Air Quality Matters and One Take, where we unpack the latest research shaping our understanding of indoor air and the built environment. This week, we step away from the physics and chemistry of air quality and dive firmly into the psychology of how we perceive—and crucially, misperceive—the air around us. The paper is titled Why Do We Misperceive Air Pollution? A Scoping Review of Key Judgmental Biases, published in Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health, and it systematically

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71:54

Fast Cheap and Good - Pick Any Two: Housing with John...

Air Quality Matters ·

2026/01/19

We sit down with John O'Connor, former chair of Ireland's Housing Commission, and Neil Freshwater, Public Affairs Manager for GB and Ireland at Velux, to explore one of the most complex challenges facing Ireland and Europe today: how do we deliver affordable housing at pace while ensuring homes are healthy, sustainable, and fit for purpose? Recorded at a Healthy Homes Ireland event in Dublin just before Christmas, this conversation tackles the fundamental tensions in housing policy—between volume

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OT31: Fighting Fire With Fire - The Hidden Health...

Air Quality Matters ·

2025/12/18

Welcome back to Air Quality Matters and One Take, where we unpack the latest research shaping our understanding of indoor air and the built environment.This week, we're diving into one of the most complex and urgent environmental dilemmas of our time: the smoke from fires we set on purpose. The paper, Associations between PM2.5 from Prescribed Burning and Emergency Department Visits in 11 Southeastern US States by a team of researchers from Boston University, Georgia Tech, and other institutions,

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From Thermal Comfort to Heat Stress: Buildings That...

Air Quality Matters ·

2025/12/15

In this essential episode, we sit down with Paul O'Sullivan, lecturer in Sustainable Energy Engineering at MTU and co-lead of the MESO Research Group, to explore one of the most pressing—yet often overlooked—challenges in our built environment: how do we design buildings that don't overheat?Paul brings deep expertise in low-energy demand-side technologies, building retrofit strategies, indoor thermal environments, and ventilative cooling. His work sits at the fascinating intersection of thermal

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OT30: Beyond the Numbers - What 95 Remote Workers...

Air Quality Matters ·

2025/12/11

Welcome back to Air Quality Matters and One Take, where we unpack the latest research shaping our understanding of indoor air and the built environment.This week, we're diving into a paper that tackles a question millions of us have been living with since the pandemic: What actually makes a good home office? The study is titled Home as an Office: Investigating the Associations Between Indoor Environmental Quality, Wellbeing and Performance in Work From Home Settings, and it explores a fascinating

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212 results

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